Both games removed from the nominee list are based on Nintendo properties.

One of the catagories in the upcoming Game Awards is "best fan creation," - which honors the coolest fan-made mods, add-ons or completely new games of the year. This year, the list of nominees is strangely small, with only Brutal Doom 64 and Enderal: The Shards of Order listed. That's because two fan creations were myseteriously dropped from the nominee list over the weekend: Pokemon Uranium and AM2R.

For the uninitiated, Pokemon Uranium is a PC Pokemon fan game, while Project AM2R is a fan remake of Metroid 2. Both games are based on Nintendo properties and the leading rumor at this point is that Nintendo, who have supported The Game Awards in the past, has asked the awards show to remove the nominees.

We've reached out to some of the relative parties: Nintendo, and the developers of the two fan games, to try and clear things up.

Canadamus Prime:Let's not jump to conclusions. We don't know for sure that Nintendo's responsible for this. ...although that does seem likely. If I recall they did try and shut down both those projects.

Yeah. If you ask me the makers of the modders asked Game Awards to drop their own game off the list.

You know what they say, nail that stands out get THE HAMMER. Always have to fly under the Nintendo cease and desist radar.

Is anyone actually surprised about this? Nintendo's dicketry has been well-documented going back not just years but decades, whether against their own fans or fellow developers and publishers. At this point, if Nintendo didn't act like jerks, I'd actually be suprised. All games companies have done dumb and petty stuff in the past, but Nintendo is the only one that really seems to get a free pass no matter what they do and how often they do it. Well, maybe also Valve.

Ninten-no fun allowed.Seriously. My wiiu and Wii have basically seen no play in their whole lifespans beyond small spans of time with smash and xenoblade chronicles and xenoblade chronicles X. I really loved nintendo growing up and I still enjoy their handheld stuff, but man they are not a company I like as a company. Between this shit and their youtube practices, they really do a great job of alienating their fan base

And I am gonna be the contrarian to counter all these "FUCKNINTENDO" shit just because your precious fangame is not getting an award.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

And I am gonna be the contrarian to counter all these "FUCKNINTENDO" shit just because your precious fangame is not getting an award.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

There now I stopped making this thread an anti nintendo echo chamber.

And?

How exactly does that stop them from being like Konami? Konami was also absolutely entitled to do all the shit they did. Didn't mean they weren't buttholes.

And I am gonna be the contrarian to counter all these "FUCKNINTENDO" shit just because your precious fangame is not getting an award.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

There now I stopped making this thread an anti nintendo echo chamber.

And?

How exactly does that stop them from being like Konami? Konami was also absolutely entitled to do all the shit they did. Didn't mean they weren't buttholes.

Because they are in the right, it is their property.

And it does help when people act like spoiled children when they don't get what they want. Just calls them buttholes.

And this is another story entirely but I am tired of this AAA publisher bashing. I was once like you guys but than something changed in me.

And I am gonna be the contrarian to counter all these "FUCKNINTENDO" shit just because your precious fangame is not getting an award.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

There now I stopped making this thread an anti nintendo echo chamber.

And?

How exactly does that stop them from being like Konami? Konami was also absolutely entitled to do all the shit they did. Didn't mean they weren't buttholes.

Because they are in the right, it is their property.

And it does help when people act like spoiled children when they don't get what they want. Just calls them buttholes.

And this is another story entirely but I am tired of this AAA publisher bashing. I was once like you guys but than something changed in me.

I hear you on the AAA bashing getting annoying, but with so few big companies left still doing this killing of fan made projects, people have the right to call it out. Sega used to do this kind of stuff, then they realized that it made them unpopular and started working with these creators. Its how we're getting Sonic Mania. Hell, Sega just opened up modding on the PC version of their Sega Classics titles and said go nuts.

Whether its Sony severely limiting what kind of mods Fallout 4 can use on the PS4 or Nintendo blocking fan titles (including the best Metroid title made in almost 10 years) calling out companies for continuing this needless blockage of appreciation of their own works is sad.

Its not doing them any favours with the position they're in. Had they simply pulled a Sega and bought AM2R (which would have been cheaper than them making a Metroid game" and sold it as a Switch Launch title, they would have gotten some great press. Fearing that a 2 person team is going to hurt your corporate bottom line shows that these companies can be undone and outdone by amateur work on their own franchises.

And I am gonna be the contrarian to counter all these "FUCKNINTENDO" shit just because your precious fangame is not getting an award.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

There now I stopped making this thread an anti nintendo echo chamber.

And?

How exactly does that stop them from being like Konami? Konami was also absolutely entitled to do all the shit they did. Didn't mean they weren't buttholes.

Because they are in the right, it is their property.

And it does help when people act like spoiled children when they don't get what they want. Just calls them buttholes.

And this is another story entirely but I am tired of this AAA publisher bashing. I was once like you guys but than something changed in me.

I was going to say that that it's their right to protect their property to be used in other games without their permission; but taking them out of videogame awards isn't. But I just realized that Reggie Fils-Aime is member of the awards advisory board (along with the executives of Activision, AMD, Microsoft, Rockstar Games, Sony, Telltale, Ubisoft, Valve and WB). Supposedly the advisory board is not involved in the selection of nominees or winners; but now we see how much of a joke these Awards really are.

How exactly does that stop them from being like Konami? Konami was also absolutely entitled to do all the shit they did. Didn't mean they weren't buttholes.

Because they are in the right, it is their property.

And it does help when people act like spoiled children when they don't get what they want. Just calls them buttholes.

And this is another story entirely but I am tired of this AAA publisher bashing. I was once like you guys but than something changed in me.

I was going to say that that it's their right to protect their property to be used in other games without their permission; but taking them out of videogame awards isn't. But I just realized that Reggie Fils-Aime is member of the awards advisory board (along with the executives of Activision, AMD, Microsoft, Rockstar Games, Sony, Telltale, Ubisoft, Valve and WB). Supposedly the advisory board is not involved in the selection of nominees or winners; but now we see how much of a joke these Awards really are.

Exactly I learned best game of the year means nothing at this point. Its all about personal preference.

So far Total War: Warhammer is my game of the year but sadly I doubt its even gonna be included.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

So what's the reasoning for Pokemon Uranium? It's not a remake, it wouldn't have impacted the sales of official Pokemon games. It's a fan made region, fan made Pokemon, fan made story. It's basically fanfiction in game format.

And it does help when people act like spoiled children when they don't get what they want. Just calls them buttholes.

And this is another story entirely but I am tired of this AAA publisher bashing. I was once like you guys but than something changed in me.

I was going to say that that it's their right to protect their property to be used in other games without their permission; but taking them out of videogame awards isn't. But I just realized that Reggie Fils-Aime is member of the awards advisory board (along with the executives of Activision, AMD, Microsoft, Rockstar Games, Sony, Telltale, Ubisoft, Valve and WB). Supposedly the advisory board is not involved in the selection of nominees or winners; but now we see how much of a joke these Awards really are.

Exactly I learned best game of the year means nothing at this point. Its all about personal preference.

So far Total War: Warhammer is my game of the year but sadly I doubt its even gonna be included.

I still think the games that bring technical, creative or artistic achivements should be celebrated for what they are (even without a game of the year). But the industry and the community are still too immadure for such celebrations to be any more meaningful than personal preferences.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

So what's the reasoning for Pokemon Uranium? It's not a remake, it wouldn't have impacted the sales of official Pokemon games. It's a fan made region, fan made Pokemon, fan made story. It's basically fanfiction in game format.

Funny thing, this is the same game awards that went out of their way to defame ( for lack of a better word ) Konami during their event last year and are still using this situation as a marketing ploy this year, right?

And now they buckle to Nintendo, bunch of spineless lizards, the lot of them.

And I am gonna be the contrarian to counter all these "FUCKNINTENDO" shit just because your precious fangame is not getting an award.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

There now I stopped making this thread an anti nintendo echo chamber.

Yeah, I was never going to re-buy Metroid 2 on the virtual console. As much as like the series (see my ambivalence rather than hatred towards of Other M) Metroid 1 and 2 are unbelievably dated in their design, and unless Nintendo actually updated it to be more modern, the audience of the remake would be very different.

The virtual console release only appeals to the oldest of fans who are willing to put up with the limitations the original Gameboy placed on design and don't still have a copy of it, these people would buy it no matter what for the sake of authenticity. Where as if it was a Zero Mission style remake on the virtual console, this argument would make more sense that it might be cannibalising new sales, but AM2R is closer to Zero Mission or Fusion than it is to the original Metroid 2 and people drawn to the series by those games weren't buying Metroid 2 off of the virtual console 5 years later ever.

bluegate:Funny thing, this is the same game awards that went out of their way to defame ( for lack of a better word ) Konami during their event last year and are still using this situation as a marketing ploy this year, right?

And now they buckle to Nintendo, bunch of spineless lizards, the lot of them.

I'm pretty sure these fangames have nowhere near the level of fame that Kojima does. Not saying that makes your statement wrong; on the contrary it just goes to show their oh-so-subtle pointing out that Kojima was 'on holiday' was a cynical calculation.

bluegate:Funny thing, this is the same game awards that went out of their way to defame ( for lack of a better word ) Konami during their event last year and are still using this situation as a marketing ploy this year, right?

And now they buckle to Nintendo, bunch of spineless lizards, the lot of them.

I'm pretty sure these fangames have nowhere near the level of fame that Kojima does. Not saying that makes your statement wrong; on the contrary it just goes to show their oh-so-subtle pointing out that Kojima was 'on holiday' was a cynical calculation.

What bothers me the most about this is that this shows how corrupt and easily influenced these awards are.

One of the sponsors doesn't like one of our nominees? Alright, we'll pull it from the list.

Seeing as they are removing nominees on request of sponsors, how much integrity do they still have?How are we to know that they also won't add nominees on request of sponsors, or even worse, give awards on request of sponsors.

The "fans" made this without Nintendo's premission and I don't care if they released it for free, Nintendo is still selling the original Metroid 2 in their virtual console so people buying the remake for free is gonna take away sales from the virtual console Metroid 2.

So what's the reasoning for Pokemon Uranium? It's not a remake, it wouldn't have impacted the sales of official Pokemon games. It's a fan made region, fan made Pokemon, fan made story. It's basically fanfiction in game format.

Probably because Uranium tried using kickstarter and patreon to make money for that game? I mean, if AM2R is in murky waters, Uranium, in addition to being a bad game in general, has no legal leg to stand on whatsoever.

Canadamus Prime:Let's not jump to conclusions. We don't know for sure that Nintendo's responsible for this. ...although that does seem likely. If I recall they did try and shut down both those projects.

Uranium is fun as Hell for all its faults but me getting it before the devs took it off their site certainly didn't stop me from buying Sun last Friday. Just because Nintendo doesn't want these things to exist doesn't mean it is so.

Czann:It's simply not worth being a Nintendo fan anymore. I jumped from that boat long ago.

No way I will waste my time with tributes to a company ruled by desiccated, dusty mummies out of their time.

There's even less of a reason to be a fan of the other companies though. All they create is mediocrities. Sony being the worst offender. Honestly, as dumb as it is for Nintendo to do this, they're the only thing worth playing now.

You basically jumped a boat just to land on an island used for garbage dumping.

I hear you on the AAA bashing getting annoying, but with so few big companies left still doing this killing of fan made projects, people have the right to call it out. Sega used to do this kind of stuff, then they realized that it made them unpopular and started working with these creators. Its how we're getting Sonic Mania. Hell, Sega just opened up modding on the PC version of their Sega Classics titles and said go nuts.

SEGA's also desperate at this point. That's why. They basically have both feet in the grave, they need a hit. Even if it means completely pandering to nostalgically blind hipsters. Honestly, I don't mean to rag on Sonic Mania but when you take a good look at it, what is it offering other than being a complete backtrack to the Genesis era? Remember what happened with Sonic 4? The last attempt SEGA made at doing that same thing?

bluegate:Funny thing, this is the same game awards that went out of their way to defame ( for lack of a better word ) Konami during their event last year and are still using this situation as a marketing ploy this year, right?

And now they buckle to Nintendo, bunch of spineless lizards, the lot of them.

I feel that there is a very big difference between Konami literally barring the creator of a game that won an award for from attending his own ceremony with his team for it with a legal charge threat and Nintendo supposedly (because really we don't know who pulled it from the site or if the devs themselves asked.) taking a game off the awards list.

bluegate:Funny thing, this is the same game awards that went out of their way to defame ( for lack of a better word ) Konami during their event last year and are still using this situation as a marketing ploy this year, right?

And now they buckle to Nintendo, bunch of spineless lizards, the lot of them.

I feel that there is a very big difference between Konami literally barring the creator of a game that won an award for from attending his own ceremony with his team for it with a legal charge threat and Nintendo supposedly (because really we don't know who pulled it from the site or if the devs themselves asked.) taking a game off the awards list.

- If Nintendo requested the nominees be pulled, it's Nintendo directly getting them pulled.- If the organizers of the award show pulled them, it's because of fear for retaliation from Nintendo. Nintendo getting them pulled indirectly.- If it's the creators asking them to get pulled, it's because of fear for retaliation from Nintendo. Nintendo getting them pulled indirectly.

In any case, the games are pulled under threat of Nintendo.

But this isn't about pointing out what dicks Nintendo can be or assigning blame to Nintendo, the point is that two games that one of their sponsors has a problem with are pulled from the nominee list. It is about the integrity of the 'game awards' show. The two games were in the category called "best fan creation", and within the realm of fan creations, these games did bloody well and should be able to be credited for it, regardless of whether they used names or assets from licensed products, something which is to be expected in a fan creation.

And that's still an 'If'. You are jumping the gun and blaming Nintendo for something that you have zero confirmation of them doing.

- If the organizers of the award show pulled them, it's because of fear for retaliation from Nintendo. Nintendo getting them pulled indirectly.

And that's still an 'If' on your part. The organizers could of pulled it for a multitude of reasons, and 'being afraid of Nintendo' is just a major assumption on your part. They had no issues slapping the face of Konami last year. And they are still a rather huge gaming company

If it's the creators asking them to get pulled, it's because of fear for retaliation from Nintendo. Nintendo getting them pulled indirectly.

They already got 'retaliated' by Nintendo by being dumb enough to set up a Patreon to make monthly income off of a fan game. I would like to point out that Pokemon company doesn't really give a shit about these games. There are ten million ROM hack fan games using assets directly form previous games that Pokemon Let's Players stream a bazillion times and they are never taken down. For fucks sakes this website http://pokemonshowdown.com/ is literally a battle simulation using stats, assets, code, etc. Directly from the game that tournament players use ALL THE TIME and it was never taken down.

Quite frankly any game that's on there that got a C&D order shouldn't' of been nominated to begin with. This is on top of the fact that Pokemon Uranium was a shit game even for Pokemon ROM standards and ASMR2 was literally a by the book remake of a game that already exists. As much as I appreciate the work that went into the latter, why should Pokemon Uranium have a shot of getting a fan game reward period when it was hot garbage? The latter one didn't have an original story whatsoever it was just a better artwork version of an existing game.

When I think of fan games I think of games that are original but use the characters and settings of another IP. Uranium fits this, but it's also garbage and they were already in hot water for trying to profit over this.

In any case, the games are pulled under threat of Nintendo.

You literally don't know this. Nobody knows this. You are just straight assuming it and saying that it's true.

But this isn't about pointing out what dicks Nintendo can be or assigning blame to Nintendo,

And yet you are adamant on stating that Nintendo either had a direct or indirect influence on these games being taken down.

the point is that two games that one of their sponsors has a problem with are pulled from the nominee list.

You state this isn't about Nintendo yet once again repeat that they were pulled because Nintendo might of had issues with it.

It is about the integrity of the 'game awards' show. The two games were in the category called "best fan creation", and within the realm of fan creations, these games did bloody well and should be able to be credited for it, regardless of whether they used names or assets from licensed products, something which is to be expected in a fan creation.

If this is honestly the best fan creations have to offer than I got a few suggestions for them.

1) To the organizers who nominate these games. Do better and know better about the legalities of these games. They shouldn't be nominated simply because they are popular.

2)I will never understand how videogame fan devs can't seem to wrap their damn minds around the most basic fucking copyright laws and still whine about it.

AM2R- Good work- but the game was an almost 1-1 remake of a game that already exists on the market and is still being sold by it's original company You knew (and they did know) that they were baiting the C&D hammer big time with that and they did it anyway. You could of used that blood, sweat, and effort making an ACTUAL fan game and having real Fair Use grounds to stand on. (In fact you would most likely be left alone.) Fans of the game also know this too. If fan game creators care that much about their games staying up for more than 4 hours than be fucking smart about it and not do this shit. Why do people assume that basic copyright laws don't' apply to them?

Pokemon Uranium- You would of gotten away scot free with your game like the 10 million other ROM hack fan games out there revolving around Pokemon but you had to take a dip in the moron pool and set up a monthly Patreon income drive which means you were directly making a profit off of an IP that doesn't belong to you. You cannot tell me they didn't see that mess coming from a mile away.

Like I get that they were popular fangames, but if you want to talk about integrity than you also have to take into account the legal integrity of the games as well. Both of these games had shit in there that would cause problems in the future for more incriminating fan games. The first one-while a fan game- was also making an illegal profit. As such it got shot down.

The second one was a remake of a game already selling and still on the market with zero changes. That's a very bad standard to set since you would just have award nominations that are basically 'remake of nostalgic game that already exists.'Honestly they should exclude fan game category all together until they can find people that can either A) Know how to find and nominate games that don't have dozens of legal or C&D baggage is or B)Until the vast majority gamers and fan gamer devs can understand what constitutes and fanart and 'fair use' and what's a big target for 'please shut me down the moment Kotaku reports it' bait.

I am not surprised. Nintendo REALLY don't like Fangames competing with their products, and don't want them to get extra publicity or acceptance. :s

Which is a shame because AM2R was DAMN good. In fact, it's the reason I went back to give Metroid 2 another chance after giving up on it last year.

I think it's terrible these games aren't getting the recognition they deserve, but I understand. Copyright law is a bitch. :s

LordTerminal:Remember what happened with Sonic 4? The last attempt SEGA made at doing that same thing?

To be fair sonic 4 had horrendous level design and physics, which is what brought it down. That and it feels like it was a rush job by people who just wanted to crap anything out to appease the old fans.

Whereas with Mania, they got help from people who have actually proven they can make the 2D Sonic formula work. This time they actually have people who know what they're doing working on it.

It's not that the Genesis formula is bad or anything, it's that they forgot how to do it right. XD